It’s time for another Tuesday Debut Book Birthday!

Woo hoo! Let’s party!

And to help celebrate this fun, festive occasion, our debutess is offering a Giveaway: winner’s choice of a picture book critique (non-rhyming) or a query critique!

All you need to do to enter is leave a comment on today’s post by Monday June 10th at 3PM Eastern and you’ll be in the running for the randomly selected drawing!

Let’s just get right to it, shall we? Please join me in welcoming the lovely and talented Jackie Morera!

Title: Abuelo’s Flower Shop
Author: Jackie Morera (Jackie invites you to visit her online at jmorerabooks.com and on TikTok, Instagram, BlueSky, and Twitter/X @jmorerabooks. She also has a monthly newsletter sharing the details of her publishing journey.)
Illustrator: Deise Lino (@deise_lino on Instagram and Twitter/X)
Publishing House: Beaming Books (@BeamingBooksMN on Instagram and Twitter/X)
Date of Publication: June 4, 2024
Fiction or Nonfiction: Fiction
Age range of your book: 4-8

When Elena discovers the heartbreaking truth about the garden across the street, she learns how even the saddest places can be beautiful and how the flowers her abuelo sells help send an important message to those in need. Abuelo’s Flower Shop highlights the love between grandparents and grandchildren, especially as they navigate challenging conversations about loss and grief. 

SUSANNA: Welcome, Jackie! Thank you so much for coming to join us today! This is such a lovely, lovely book. That one repeated line (which I won’t give away) made me teary, but in a good way. Where did the idea for this book come from?

JACKIE: Abuelo’s Flower Shop was loosely inspired by my own experience visiting with my abuelos growing up. They sold flowers from the sidewalk of their Miami home, which sat catty-cornered from a cemetery.

Jackie’s Abuelo Antonio, selling flowers in front of his Miami home, 1993

SUSANNA: How long did it take you to write this book?

JACKIE: The idea came to me on a return roadtrip home after visiting family in Miami in August of 2021. It was late and I (a passenger) was drifting off to sleep when all of a sudden I saw my abuelos in my mind. They were smiling and surrounded by flowers, which is how I always picture them, but there was a sadness present as well. My grandfather passed when I was not much older than Elena, our main character, and my grandmother was suffering from severe dementia at the time. I wrote the entire first draft, which was more poetic and lyrical than the final, in about 10 minutes on the Notes app of my phone but I continued to revise and tinker with the manuscript for almost two years. We wrapped up copyedits in June of 2023.

SUSANNA: Did you go through many revisions?

JACKIE: Yes, several! Because there was such a long gap between receiving an offer of publication and reconnecting with my original editor, Cherrita Lee, (November 2021 to January 2023 🤯), I worked on the story quite a lot with my incredible critique partners. This isn’t recommended, by the way, but it worked out in my case. When Cherrita got in touch again, I sent her both versions—the original manuscript and the revised one—and we moved forward with the revised version. She encouraged me to make a handful of changes at that point. There were also additional edits to be made throughout the copyediting process and even a few changes to the text during a final read-through with the illustrations. I would say, in total, there were at least a dozen revisions of Abuelo’s Flower Shop but I prefer not to track revisions.

Jackie’s work space, where her Labrador Retriever/Hound mix, Tanner, is always underfoot.

SUSANNA: When and how did you submit?

JACKIE: Cherrita invited me to submit directly to her after liking my #PitMad pitch. #PitMad was a popular Twitter/X pitch party event and September 2021, when I pitched Abuelo’s Flower Shop, was actually the second-to-last time they hosted the event. I sent my manuscript shortly after. I was unrepresented at the time and signed with my first agent (who I also connected with through a Twitter/X pitch event, this time #LatinxPitch) in December of the same year.

For those who may find it helpful/interesting, this was the pitch that won an invitation to submit:

THE HEART AND THE BOTTLE x GRANDDAD’S ISLAND

When Elena begins to notice that her happiest place, ABUELO’S FLOWER CART, isn’t so happy for visitors her Abuelo must show her how even the saddest places can be beautiful too. 🌺

#PitMad #PB #OWN #IRMC #C

It’s funny reading it now. It was my first attempt at pitching and there’s so much about it I would change if I could. But I suppose that’s proof you never know what might work until you try!

SUSANNA: How long after you found out about your book going to acquisitions (if you did) or after you submitted were you told it was a “yes”?

JACKIE: Two months almost to the day!

SUSANNA: When did you know your manuscript was ready for submission?

JACKIE: This is a tricky one. The easy answer is: I honestly didn’t know! I was so new to the publishing world and came in Kool-Aid Man style. I wrote Abuelo’s Flower Shop in August, began querying right away, pitched it in September, and then received an offer in November but it was somewhere in October, when I met my first critique partner, that I realized my manuscript was not “ready” by typical picture book craft standards. I was actually considering pulling my queries and submissions when …

SUSANNA: When did you get “the call”, which these days is more likely to be “the email”?  (Best moment ever! 😊) and how did you celebrate (if you care to share 😊)

JACKIE: I got the Offer of Publication email on November 11, 2021 at 12:37 PM ET … about thirty minutes after I convinced myself my stories weren’t ready and that I should pull everything to reset and revise. It was the most validating, surreal moment of my life.

SUSANNA: Too bad you can’t remember exactly when you got the offer 🤣🤣 How long was it between getting your offer and getting your contract to sign?

JACKIE: Nine months.

SUSANNA: Was the contract what you expected in terms of advance, royalty percentage, publication timeline, author copies etc.?

JACKIE: Again, as a newbie, I didn’t know what to expect in terms of these things. Fortunately, Cherrita allowed me plenty of time to pursue representation before acting on the offer and the agent I signed with confirmed the deal was a standard one for the size of the publisher but she did work to double the advance and negotiate other contract terms before we signed. I’m grateful I took the time to secure an agent before signing.

SUSANNA: Can you tell us a little about the editorial process?

JACKIE: As I mentioned above, there were two distinct versions of the manuscript when I reconnected with Cherrita. The version we went with is pretty close to the version in print but I did have a few rounds of edits, each with a different editor because of some internal shuffling around at the publisher. The biggest change, suggested by my original editor, was to add in the spread below and really breathe into the moment before Elena greets the final customers. The edits I worked on with my next two editors, Andrea Hall and Naomi Krueger were much smaller and mainly focused on final touches.

text copyright Jackie Morera 2024, illustration copyright Deise Lino 2024, Beaming Books

SUSANNA: What was your experience of the illustration process like?

JACKIE: My publisher shared character proofs, early sketches of a variety of covers, and sketches for the full manuscript all to review, which I appreciated so much because I know that isn’t always the norm. It was incredible to see Deise and the creative team bring my story to life in a way that was so close to how I envisioned it. Especially considering I only included a few art notes—mainly for context of how the characters move around through the world.

SUSANNA: Did you get to see advance reviews from Kirkus, SLJ, etc? What was that like?

JACKIE: At the time of writing this (May 2024), I haven’t received any advance reviews.

SUSANNA: How long did it take from offer to having the first copy in your hand?

JACKIE: It took 2 years, 5 months, and 15 days. But who’s counting?!

SUSANNA: Obviously no one 😊 What kind of marketing and promotion has your publisher done for this book?

JACKIE: I’m sure my publisher is working very hard to promote Abuelo’s Flower Shop but, admittedly, I couldn’t say exactly what they’re doing in terms of marketing and PR. They have been very helpful in supporting my promotion efforts below. E.g. they designed my bookmarks and stickers, facilitated a few blog connections, and are quick to answer my book tour, conferences, and festival questions.

SUSANNA: Describe any marketing/promotion you did for this book.

JACKIE: A number of things: I hired Molly Ippolito of The Sunny Side to create a companion educator’s guide and classroom visit resources; I made my own supplementary activities like coloring pages, a word search, etc.; I ordered bookmarks and stickers for a pre-order campaign; I coordinated an in-person book tour, virtual launch event, and blog tour; I appeared on an episode of the podcast My Creative Life; I submitted a proposal with a group of fellow picture book authors that was accepted for NCTE; and I joined several co-marketing groups which, out of everything, has been my favorite part. Getting to know other authors is wonderful!

SUSANNA: How long was it between the time you started writing seriously and the time you sold your first picture book?

JACKIE: This is difficult to measure because I’ve always felt serious about my writing, even when it was intended for an audience of one (little old me). But, in terms of serious intent to pursue publication, that started in late July of 2021. With that date in mind, there was approximately four months between “taking this thing seriously” and “holy crap — I actually did it!”

SUSANNA: What is the most important/helpful thing you learned on your way to publication? (Or what is your most helpful piece of advice for up and coming writers?)

JACKIE: I suppose, reflecting on the answers above, the most important choice I’ve made so far was to take a chance. While it might not have been the “traditional” way to approach publishing, I wouldn’t be where I am today if not for that belief in myself. And it’s something I still lean on today whenever I unlock a new stage of publishing!

SUSANNA: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us today, Jackie! We are grateful for the opportunity to learn from your knowledge and experience, and we wish you all the best with this and future titles! Congratulations and Happy Book Birthday!

Readers, if you have questions for Jackie, please post them in the comments below and if she has time I’m sure she’ll respond! And remember, you comment on this post by Monday June 10th at 3PM Eastern will put you in the running to be randomly selected to win the giveaway – winner’s choice of a picture book critique (non-rhyming) or a query critique!

Author Jackie Morera

jmorerabooks.com
TikTok
Instagram
BlueSky,
Twitter/X @jmorerabooks
newsletter (sharing the details of her publishing journey.)

You may purchase Jackie’s book at:
(all links below are book-specific)

Indiebound/Bookshop.org
Amazon
Barnes&Noble

We can help our debut authors successfully launch their careers by:

– purchasing their books

– recommending their books to friends and family

– recommending their books to our children’s teachers and librarians

– recommending their books to our local libraries and bookstores

– suggesting them as visiting authors at our children’s schools and our local libraries

– sharing their books on social media

– reviewing their books on Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes&Noble, and other sites where people go to learn about books.

Thank you all for stopping by to read today!  Have a lovely, inspiration-filled Tuesday!  Maybe today is the day you’ll write your debut picture book 😊

Missed any previous Tuesday Debuts?  Check them out HERE!